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Hello, I have them and I can say they bent inwards every time I dropped the bike, there is still some clearance left before they start touching the side panels, though. So, yes, I can say they protected the bike. All the falls have been static, never at speed which I guess that the toll on the crashbars would be higher, if that happened. I run the bike without side panniers, which seems to me that they are usually the ones that take great part of the energy from the impact.

 

I emailed SW motech (Spain) because I was not happy and they replied that if no part of the bike was damaged after the drop, the bars served their purpose correctly, and if they made them stronger, thus making them harder to bent, that could potentially damage anchor points on the engine... which makes sense.

 

After some falls, I disassembled the crashbars and checked the mounting points on the engine, they were fine.

That is good news! Protective bars need to be sacrificial, not the strongest component of the bike. I was worried they would be too stiff.